It’s Hot Out
Photo by Rajiv Bajaj on Unsplash
In August of 2020, my family moved into our new house on the east side of Richardson (#EastSidePride). The move was its own adventure, including a three-week period where we were between houses and stayed with our in-laws in Colorado while we continued to shop and sign paperwork remotely. Needless to say, we were glad to settle in.
When we moved in, I felt a strong burden to get to know our neighbors. We had not done a great job at our last home of intentionally meeting people. The move was an opportunity for us to start with a clean slate. We moved all of our kids' toys to the front yard and tried to take every chance to get to know those around us. We got especially close with six boys from two families on our street who are Muslim.
Then the summer came and—newsflash—it’s hot, y’all. Which shouldn’t be news, but it has sucked the wind from our sails on hanging with our neighbors. We’re not outside; they’re not outside. I’ve started to feel guilty that I’m neglecting those relationships.
It was as I was thinking about these neighbors and my hope that they would come to know Jesus that a podcast I was listening to struck a chord with me. The host was talking about what is meant when Genesis 1:14 tells us that, “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years...”
In thinking about that verse, I was comforted with a very simple thought: God knows that it’s summer. God knows that it’s hot. God has arranged our world in all of its details. Elsewhere, Solomon in Ecclesiastes will tell us that God has given everything a season. To paraphrase him, there’s a time to be hot and a time to be cold; a time to hang with neighbors and a time to be inside, in the AC.
Why am I telling you this? For me, the heat had become a source of guilt. Was God going to hold me accountable for not being outside more? I don’t think so. Instead, I’m realizing that God knows the weather and He wants me to prayerfully think: What might He be calling me to in the midst of the seasons that He has appointed? So it’s hot right now. How might my time be spent for God’s glory and my good?
Maybe that means I’m spending more time inside building towers with my two year old. Maybe that means I’m spending more time in prayer for neighbors in preparation for the interactions we’ll have this fall. Maybe it means I should relax a little as I wrap up some grad school this summer.
As you think about this season, I hope you will recognize that God is in charge of it. Whatever the case, whether it’s the heat outside, the job you’re in, the state of your family, your life with roommates, kids home on summer break—there’s a season to it, and a reason that God has given it to you. Would you join me in considering what God might be calling us to embrace?